While traveling in the South I was surprised to hear the exact same conversation in every diner I went into. It was whatever scare point was on the news the previous day. And nobody was debating the merits of the clams they were reciting, they were just agreeing with each other and bringing up the next claim. It was like it was a scripted conversation that they had started every time I walked into a greasy spoon restaurant.

I think it's more important for people to be up on their current talking points than to look at anything critically, especially not look into what their "news" media tells them is happening. And a lot of that seems to revolve around how terrible California is, I'm not sure why besides creating a very "large and powerful, controls Hollywood and the narrative" other for people to be worried about. (Surprisingly the exact same narrative control that dominates the diners in the South)